Milly and Rosetta are fizzing to have Australian DJ and producer Ninajirachi up in the studio - chatting about her new album I Love My Computer, and shows with Nympho in Tāmaki Makaurau and Te Whanganui a Tara this weekend! Whakarongo mai nei!

Today on Travelling Tunes, Dr Kirsten Zemke is chatting with us about all things Ska! 

Selections:

Fishbone - Party At Ground Zero (1985)

The Specials - A Message To You Rudy (1979)

The Skatalites - Guns of Navarone (1985)

Happy Rāmere e hoa mā! Today on show, Milly and Rosetta chat all things Ska for Travelling Tunes, Ninajirachi is up in studio for a kōrero about her new album + shows in Aotearoa, and Cam from Southbound chats about some of the new releases out on the shelves today for From The Crate! Whakarongo mai nei!

Séraphine Pick is one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated painters, with a career spanning 30 years in which Pick investigates human experience through the material language of paint. 

Her paintings circulate this tension between figuration and its collapse, often bringing the figure forth into her ethereal compositions and then dissolving them back into themselves.

This new body of work presented within Paintings continues Pick's exploration of material dissolution and figural density, displaying a rich navigation of material applications. Each work leans into its own materiality, some soft and delicate, while others thick and textural. An act of deep listening and responding to the paintings themselves, with pic circling back to former ways of making through a new lens.

Maya had a kōrero with Séraphine about the show and overall practice. 

Last week, several politicians including the Prime Minister and the Mayor of Auckland attended Auckland's City Rail Link test run. As the project nears completion, the CRL team is busy running tests to ensure this new upgraded rail system is ready for use on the day it launches on an unspecified date in 2026.

Several political leaders were invited to a test last week where they went through the three new stations that are a part of New Zealand’s first underground rail system. 

This comes at a time where Central Government is becoming increasingly stand-off ish with Local Governments across the country with rhetoric aimed at focusing councils on “Roads, Rubbish and Rates” 

This has come to a head with a recent move to introduce a rates cap which threatens to put a hard ceiling on what Local Councils can spend on in their communities. 

The CRL has been under construction for nearly a decade and costs more than $5.5 billion dollars with the project going over budget and over schedule on multiple occasions, drawing criticism from those who believe we are spending too much money on ineffective infrastructure projects. 

Producer Sanat talked to Councilor Julie Fairey today about the value that CRL will give to the city and why we have such a hard time nationally building ambitious infrastructure projects.

This week the DentalforAll campaign set out on a national roadshow to build public support over communities across the country. 

The campaign team stands for universal, free and te-tiriti consistent dental healthcare that is delivered through our public health care system. 

Under the current system individuals above the age of 18 have to access dental healthcare privately and those in need can apply for a WINZ grant of $1000, which is strictly means tested. This often means that those who do not qualify for the grant simply do not access dental health care. 

According to public polling carried out in 2022, 74% of the public supports the idea of universal dental health care. 

The campaign is trying to make the case to communities across the country so that they can get buy-in necessary from political leaders, going into the 2026 election next year.

Producer Sanat wanted to get more insight into what the campaign team sees as its road to victory on this issue and whether this is a feasible proposal, so he talked to DentalforAll campaigner Hana Pilkington-Ching about her work.

The government has recently announced changes to the national GP funding formula which aims to better resource GP offices across the country with funding that is more reflective of the communities they serve. 

This formula had previously not been changed for the last 20 years and has faced calls for substantial reform. A recent report found that the introduction of morbidity, social deprivation and ethnicity data into this formula would lead to more equitable health outcomes.

The government has included most of these recommendations, but has specifically excluded ethnicity data from this formula, even though the government has previously acknowledged that ethnicity does play a role in determining health outcomes if evidence exists. 

Producer Sanat talked to the University of Otago’s Dr Gabrielle McDonald on these changes to the formula and why it is so important to include ethnicity data.

Happy Thursday e hoa mā! Today on Breakfast, Rosetta and Milly catch up with David Slack for Political Commentary, and Lucky Lance is up in the studio to chat about the forthcoming Team Dynamite gig this Friday at Double Whammy! Plus news, weather, surf, prizes, and pleeeenty of tunes. Whakarongo mai nei!

Steve joins Sof and Elle in the studio to share his top picks of the week!